The World Health Organization estimates 3000 people each day die of suicide worldwide.

Estimates 60,000 unsuccessful suicide attempts occur daily.

Suicide is the third leading cause of death among 15 to 24 year olds.

The world average is 16 in 100,000 die of suicide. On the high end are Eastern European countries formerly the USSR and Japan at rates closer to 30 per 100,000.

I am a suicide survivor and am grateful for each day I wake up. Two of my college friends, my childhood mentor’s son, and numerous family members of friends were not as lucky. These were clues on how I can make a difference.

From my greatest challenge came my greatest gift. What I thought was a curse was really a gift. It taught me lessons and has given me the compassion and credentials to help so people will not have to go through the suffering that I’ve gone through. My mission is to lower the suicide rate and ultimately to end it worldwide as a behavior pattern.

I’d love to share with you some of the lessons and how you can help someone in need. These steps work well with non-suicidal people as well. My intent is to give you some first steps and when they are in a safe place, seek trained professionals. Sometimes there is not enough time for that and these 5 ways can make a difference.

Here are 5 Ways to Help Prevent Suicide:

1) Awareness – Notice when something doesn’t feel right.

Notice if anyone around you have not been in touch or out of communication. We are social beings and most people, including me, make better choices when we are around people than when we are alone.

When people answer “Fine” or “Good” when asked “How are you?”, it rarely means good. People say it either as a protective defense mechanism or are in denial of how they really feel. Most people do not say how they really feel partly because they do not want to dump their stuff on others but doubt people really care enough to do something about it.

Stay with them and do not leave them until they are safe without being a danger to themselves. Like a person drowning, throw them a life buoy to float on before you go for help.

Trust your gut or intuition and you never know how just a smile or a kind gesture can turn someone’s day around.

2) Respect Their World – See the world through their eyes.

People always do the best they can with the resources they got based on their emotions, focus, and beliefs.

When you can understand their world and be compassionate, that is when you have the ability to influence.

The moment you judge someone, you lose the ability to influence them. Influence them with what already influences them. The only way to know is to understand what they are going through and how they feel.

To avoid judgment, ask yourself, “Maybe there is something I don’t know?”. We never know what people are going through and this gets us in a state of curiosity to serve.

3) Come From Your Heart and Serve – Motive does matter.

People can sense whether you have pure intentions or an agenda. When you come from your heart and to serve, you can do no wrong.

Your heart is the center of intelligence. The heart sends messages to the brain. You can live without a brain but not without a heart.

When your intention is to serve, a power much greater than ourselves comes to our aid for us to be a messenger. Whatever you believe in whether its God, the Universe, Source, Infinite Intelligence, across different ethnic groups and cultures this is a common thread.

4) Share the 3 Core Truths

When I was struggling, I either forgot or was not aware of these truths. I felt alone, hopeless and that the future is painful.

Truth #1 – You are not alone.

Truth #2 – You are not broken.

Truth #3 – You are loved.

You are unique in your gifts, your genius but not unique in your challenges. You are not alone. Knowing others struggle just like us gives us hope and inspiration. It also allows future mentors to rise up sharing the nuggets of wisdom to be the light in the tunnel of darkness and give others permission to shine their light.
You are not broken. You are born a genius and programmed for failure. It’s not you that is broken, it’s the programming that is broken. Change the programming, change your life. Everything in your life has happened for a reason to guide you, protect you, and strengthen you for you to live your purpose.

You are loved. People who know you and people who don’t even know you love you. Babies cannot survive without love. It is impossible. This is proof that you were loved back then and love never disappears.

5) Create a Compelling Future

Create a future worth living. Without a vision, people perish. Make it so bright you got to wear sunglasses.

Suicidal people believe the future is so painful that living is far worse than the short term pain of killing oneself. Believe that the struggle they are going through is a gift. Embrace the struggle because it is a blessing in disguise. While it may not seem like it, when they overcome this challenge it will be a gift that guides their life. Most great leaders in history had to overcome struggles internal and external.

Many trainers and speakers in the Personal Development industry have overcome suicidal thoughts. A common theme you will now begin to notice is through tragedy comes triumph. Whatever was a struggle for them is now a source of paying it forward by teaching others serving the greater good.

Parents who have a child diagnosed with a disease starts raising awareness and creates foundations in order to find a solution.

An mother who loses a son to a drunk driver raises awareness and creates a campaign for Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Mark Victor Hansen’s parents were illiterate and created the Mark Victor Hansen Foundation and Literacy to End Poverty and have sold over 145 Million books in the Chicken Soup for the Soul Series giving people heart warming stories that touch our soul.

Eiji “A.G.” Morishita serves on the faculty of Teen Success Network and created a curriculum on Teen Depression and Suicide. His mission is to end suicides in the US and in Japan where the rate of suicide is twice as high as any industrialized nation and use that as the model to end it worldwide.

I have read a bit of your background on a previous visit so I know this post isn’t just some whim or way to fill space. Indeed you share a bit of your background in the post itself. I guess it’s easy to be caught up in the everyday give and take of relationships and one’s own needs and desires, and so overlook the anger, loneliness, or other emotions that cause the other party to be “down.” As you say, to just take “I’m fine” without much thought, glad only not to have to listen to some boring monologue.

Suicide is not a choice, is an aparent solution to a very deep emotional circusntance that might seem irrelevant to others; ofering “understanding”, symphaty”; words of reasurance, and false future ideals WILL NOT change the facts or circunstances tha tare prompting somone into suicide; it is the shoulder to shoulder share that can make a difference, knowing what is the world our friends and relatites live in an beleive in, and acepting them for what they are for them, not for what they are to us.
I have been blesssed with having a suicidal son and been suicidal myself for very different reasons, one for pier pressure, and the other for recurrent loss, and it does not matter what anyone can say, the feeling of emptiness and lack of purpose can not be filled with words of “support”, or words of “emphaty”, each case is different and has different factors affecting it.
PLEASE!!!!!, let’s not try to commercialized it and package it iwth cliche’ solutions and recommendations; when my son was in suicide whatch I went to an HR person to cry my desolation, which this person understood and apreciated; later on this person informed me their son has come out of an argument w/ parents and shot himself in fornt of his younger brother; at that moment I felt blessed my son never got to the actual fact, and realized that we are very all vurnerable, I had losty my father the year before and my mother several years earlier. But when I thought all has passed, my husband was diagnosed cancer stage four, and in less than two month he died, he did not pass away, he died; been under the care of doctors constantly and visiting and ER just one moth befor being dignosed; faith gets very shaken, and trust in the world, much less the future, is a joke in as moment like that; life lacks purpose, and really, who is interested in a life where there’s just emptiness and uncertainty, both emotionally and finacially in todays market.
Please save empty words and comisery for those who have alternatives; WE, those who have to deal with the realities that the insurance won’t pay because your concern was in your partner’s quality of live not on filling forms, and have been cheated by a medical system whose concern is meeting 15 min billing for the insurance and really don’t care what’s going inside you, and have lost part of their soul together with their partner live, konw what battling suicide is all about, and that stupid conmisarations won’t bring back your lost ones, and that it takes to remember the values stablished by the loss ones to keep going; that you can’t give up because they endure hardship you will never dream of, and that you have to honor that strenght, not for you, but for their memory; because even if they sucumbed to the unthinkable, they fought a battle we HAVE NOT been faced with.
That’s where strenght comes from.

I appreciate you taking the time to reply. Having two friends in college and my childhood mentor’s son (almost like a 2nd father) die from suicide along with my battles with depression and suicide in the past, I can relate to what you have gone through.

You certainly have strength through what you’ve overcome with your son, your husband, and your own trials. I respect that because it takes character and strength to not give up. I honor you for you being an example.

A life without purpose and that feeling of emptiness is one feeling that I know all too well.

I completely agree with you that it is the shoulder to shoulder share understanding and respecting one’s model of the world is critical. Each one of us sees the world through a different pair of glasses based on our beliefs and past experiences. When we can see through the same pair of glasses, communication opens up.

Suicide is the only choice when there are no other options in their mind. This is common for people who feel victimized and that external circumstances are the cause of their life instead of themselves.

These five steps allow to bring the possibility that there are other options.

These are simple solutions rather than cliche solutions. Actually when you go look at each one, there is actually quite a bit of depth to it. The purpose of the article is to raise awareness and show practical actions people can take and ones that have worked on converted those who were contemplating suicide to ones who wanted to live.

While there is no perfect solution, I’m sure you’d agree that an imperfect solution is far better than the alternative of ignoring the issue and doing nothing.

“Evil wins when a good man (woman) does nothing.”

The most liberating point in the transformation is when one stops blaming others and the world around them and takes ownership for their life because it is valuable.

Once there is ownership and accountability for one’s life and moving out of the “victim” mentality then choice appears.

As far as the emotional healing side to let go of the immense emotional pain, forgiveness of others and themselves releases the negative emotional baggage and associations from the past getting into a neutral state.

After forgiveness, there is room to move into the acceptance stage to love and accept ourselves and others.

The highest level is to reach a state of gratitude for overcoming it and experience a state of peace without any emotional charge of what happened. Instead of judging it “good” or “bad”, you are left with what “is”.

I have had many people that I know commit suicide and people have always said after it, we never saw it coming. I think that can be one of the most painful things, not having the chance to help someone and then it’s too late.

I can see you are so passionate about this, and with good reason. I believe there definitely needs to be more programs out there to assist those that are feeling this way and for family members to be able to help them before it’s too late. I personally don’t get how someone could feel that life is so bad that they would want to do this, no disrespect to those people, but I just feel blessed that I don’t feel this way.

It is so great to see you help raise the awareness around this subject.
Having some ideas how to help people, who think that their only way of finding relief is ending their life, makes a big difference.
Thank you for sharind this.
Yorinda
.-= Yorinda´s last blog ..Facebook Twitter and Social Bookmarking =-.

Eiji,
Thank you for sharing this extremely sensitive post. We all need to be aware of this and help people when we can.
My cousin, married 32 years, recently left her husband who had been abusive to her, mostly verbally but also sometimes physically.
.-= Dr. Erica Goodsotne´s last blog ..Beware What You Wish For – You Might Get It! =-.

Thanks so much for sharing so authentically this very important post. I have two family members where this has been an issue. I think it is really important for us to be educated and aware so that we can help those around us through their problems. I think as far as judging, we would do well to remember that until we walk a mile in someone else’s mocassins, we really don’t know what they are going through.
.-= Debbie Stevens´s last blog ..Running – A New Frontier =-.

Awesome post Eiji in bringing awareness and such insightful advice on such a devastating issue. Like Nat stated, so often when it occurs, the response of those closest to the person is that they didn’t see it coming. But then in hindsight is oftentimes when it is realized that the signs WERE there. But, of course, it’s too late.

Experience has taught me that no matter how bad things seem at the time, it will always get better and you will always find a way through it. Unfortunately, for someone who is suicidal and depressed, they just don’t see it so what you’ve provided goes a long way in helping bring forth awareness and how we can be proactive in helping prevent.

Hi Eiji,
You wrote a very informative article about a sensitive subject.I feel it’s important to what’s going on with the people in your life. so many tragedies could be avoided with just a little communication.
Joe LoFreso

Very insightful post… I lost a couple of friends to suicide the past few years, and although I regret not seeing the signs, I learned that to be a good friend you often have to keep in touch with them, see things through their eyes, and be aware of what they are feeling.. sometimes you gotta have some emotional intelligence in order to detect these things.
.-= Henway´s last blog ..My Colon Cleanse Experiment =-.

Thank you for this blog Eiji. IASP is inviting people to light a candle, near a window at 8 PM to support suicide prevention, in memory of a loved one lost to suicide and for the survivors of suicide. http://www.iasp.info/wspd#light

This Is How We BlogRoll

Disclaimer: According to the new FTC guidelines, I have to tell you that sometimes I get paid for recommending certain products on my blog. Not all the time, but often. Sometimes I get products for free. I only recommend products and events I have experienced.